Report on language and youth crime scrapped over lack of cases to study

OTTAWA – New documents show the federal government had to scrap a planned study into possible links between language and youth crime.

Emails show there weren’t enough young francophones in English-speaking Canada, and anglophone youths in Quebec, for the study.

The research was meant to help the department better understand whether belonging to a linguistic minority has anything to do with young offenders setting out on a path to a life of crime.

The department planned to interview 105 youth from official language minority communities who were in the care of rehabilitation centres in six provinces — Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Quebec.

But the documents show researchers could only find two provinces with youngsters fitting those criteria — and those youths were all on probation, not in rehabilitation centres.

That forced the department to cancel its contract with Winnipeg-based Prairie Research Associates.